Sans BARC-approved safety officer, KGH radiation unit non-functional

VISAKHAPATNAM: Without a qualified radiation safety officer (RSO), the King George Hospital's (KGH) oncology department is plagued by a serious problem. It can't enroll new patients for cobalt or Brachytherapy, where radiation is involved, nor can they upgrade the existing cobalt unit or get a new Brachytherapy unit for radiation treatment, despite interested sponsors and donors.
KGH is also facing a loss of revenue as it is also not able to enroll NTR Seva Trust patients, who are being diverted to private hospitals or other government hospitals.
As per BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre) norms, a certified RSO is employed in radiation units across the country only after they qualify a tough written and viva conducted by BARC. An RSO is an MSc-degree holder who checks A-Z safety aspects of radiation equipment, including leakage, safety stickers and condition of the machines.
"It's a highly technical work involving lots of online paperwork, tests on machines, sending monthly reports and all this should be done entirely by BARC's representative - the RSO," said head of the department of oncology at KGH Dr N Sujatha, who pointed out that KGH has only one combined post of RSO and medical physicist.
"We have a medical physicist (who helps the oncologist in treatment by determining the exposure time of the radiation equipment and making certain calculations) but she has not yet cleared the BARC exam. She will once again appear for their exam in November. The exam is pretty tough and pass percentage extremely low. Out of the 69 across the country who appeared for the RSO exam last time, only eight candidates cleared it."
KGH medical superintendent Dr M Madhusudana Babu said, "Whenever we tried to get a BARC-qualified RSO by outsourcing and even agreeing to their remuneration demands, they leave after three-four months once they get a better opportunity at a private hospital. One of them even refused to sign contract of a few months or one year despite our fulfilling his other demands. We have advertised for this post twice but are not able to get a qualified RSO, which is hampering the functioning of the radiation oncology unit."
In the absence of a certified RSO, KGH has stopped enrollment of new patients for cobalt therapy since January 2014 and is diverting patients to private cancer hospitals or government centres at Kakinada or Guntur, which is resulting in a loss of revenue for KGH under the NTR Seva Trust (formerly Aarogyasri). Earlier, KGH used to get around 40 patients for cobalt therapy daily but now only chemotherapy patients are being treated at the largest government-run super-specialty hospital in north coastal AP.
Moreover, the cobalt therapy unit is also in need of a new radiation source since the existing one had been in use since 2002 and the strength of the radio-active material has decreased. "Though Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, is willing to install a new and potent source, it can't be operated in the absence of an RSO. Similarly, AMCANA is ready to donate a Brachytherapy or internal radiotherapy unit. The remotely operated portable equipment can help keep radiation within the body for a specific time and is extremely precise. But even this can't materialise due to the lack of RSO," added Dr Sujatha.